Councilwoman Diana Juettner is pleased to announce this year’s Town of Greenburgh Parks and Recreation Department Commissioner’s Community Service Award will be presented to Danny Gold at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board annual end-of-year December dinner meeting. Councilwoman Juettner is the Town Board liaison to the Parks and Recreation Department.

The award recognizes community members who have made outstanding contributions to enhance parks and recreation opportunities for the Town of Greenburgh.

Danny, a resident of East Irvington since 1975, was a member of the Parks and Recreation advisory board from 1978-88 and served as chairman of that board for two years. Starting in 1981, and continuing today, Danny has served as president of the East Irvington Civic Association. From 1992-2002 he was the president of the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations.

From 1983-86 Danny was the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) commissioner, and also served as a coach for both his son’s and daughter’s soccer teams. Danny was also a member of the Board of Education in Irvington from 1986-92, serving a term as vice president and a term as president.

During his time in Greenburgh, Danny spearheaded two major park acquisitions for the Town of Greenburgh. In 1991 he led the effort to preserve 32 acres of land now known as the East Irvington Nature Preserve. He worked closely with community members, elected officials and Parks and Recreation staff in developing the park preserve.

Starting in 2002, he was the chairman of the Commission to Preserve Taxter Ridge and influenced dozens of people throughout the Town to wear buttons that read, “Save the Ridge.” That area, now owned by the town, is the Taxter Ridge Park Preserve. Danny was the citizen liaison and worked with officials from the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York State as well as the Trust for Public Land to ensure the purchase went through.

Presently Danny is working with the Town to create a maintenance and management plan for the Taxter Ridge Park Preserve.

“Danny’s efforts prove the impact a citizen volunteer can have in the hugely important area of parks and open space preservation,” Juettner said. “We are proud to present Danny with this award and thank him for his hard work.”

Gerard Byrne, the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, created the Community Service Award in 2004 and the previous winners of the award are Donna Rosengren (2004) and Richard Presser, who received the award posthumously in 2005.